The College Fed Challenge at Dartmouth

General Description of the Program

Dartmouth College participates in an academic competition called the College Fed Challenge.  The College Fed Challenge is “intended to help students become more knowledgeable about the Fed and the decision-making process of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy-setting group.” 
(http://www.newyorkfed.org/education/fedchallenge_college.html). 

Dartmouth College has most recently sent teams to the Boston Fed Regional Competition for each of the last 3 years.  Beginning in the fall of 2010, the Economics Department at Dartmouth College is offering Econ 85 (Independent Study) course credit in the fall terms for students interested in participating in the Fed Challenge research and competition.

Fed Challenge is open to select students (by permission of advisor/instructor) who are interested economics majors or intended majors; duties include conducting research on current economic conditions and trends, assembling and analyzing data to support policy recommendations, attending and participating in course meetings in Fall term and working on the final “script” that will be presented at competition by the Fed Challenge Team in November in Boston.  There is potential further travel if the team wins the Boston competition – the Boston winner will be invited to travel to Washington DC shortly after the Boston trip to compete at the National Fed Challenge competition.

Fed Challenge Team members must have the following qualifications: strong communication/public speaking skills, good analytical thinking, ability to do independent research AND work well with others in a team setting, ability to stick to deadlines and make the time commitment to prepare for competition. 

Competition Structure

Up to 20 schools in the northeast are allowed to submit teams for the Boston competition.  This group always includes Harvard, Yale, Brown and MIT.  Until 2010, the 20 schools were assigned to compete in a morning round against a randomly chosen group of 4 other schools from the overall 20.  The 4 winners of the 4 morning rounds would then go on to compete against each other in the afternoon round, and the winner of the later round would place 1st at Boston and be invited to compete at Nationals.  Starting in 2010, the decision was made to have the Ivy’s (MIT included) compete against each other in the morning round so from now on only one Ivy competitor will find itself in the afternoon round.  This makes the determination of our team’s overall ranking out of the 20 schools (after 2009) difficult. 

Past Competition Results

2008 – Under the advisement of Frank Zarnowski, Visiting Professor from Marymount College, the Dartmouth team finished in the top 5 schools in the Boston competition.

2009 -   Under the advisement of Frank Zarnowski, Visiting Professor from Mount St. Mary’s College, and Elisabeth Curtis, Senior Lecturer, the Dartmouth team finished in the top 5 schools in the Boston competition.

2010 – Changes were made to the competition structure beginning in this year (see Competition Structure above).  Under the advisement of Elisabeth Curtis, Senior Lecturer, the Dartmouth team finished 3rd in the morning round against Harvard, Yale, Brown and MIT.  MIT advanced to the afternoon round to be beaten by Bentley (who later went on to become the national champions).

Pdf Information on Fed Challenge